ABOUT
OUR PURPOSE
Providing food
for thought!
On this page, you will find:
Our Vision
All people are happy by practising the lifestyle of Vedic culture, inspired through their training from Vedic colleges across the world, based on a blueprint of our Vedic college at Krishna Sanctuary.
The video on the right provides you further insight into our vision.
Our Mission
Our Inspiration
ABOUT US
We show by example how to live simply and be happy!
The Vedas (Veda is the Sanskrit word for knowledge) are a collective body of knowledge on all subjects necessary to live a peaceful, prosperous life and ultimately to achieve complete realization of the Absolute Truth. This knowledge is completely perfect, as it comes directly from the Supreme Being, who is free from the four human defects (making mistakes, subject to illusion, imperfect senses, possessing a cheating propensity), which prevents us from obtaining perfect knowledge ourselves.
This knowledge has been kept intact, and passed down over time through various disciplic successions. His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the most recent spiritual master in a genuine disciplic line, promoted a way of life concisely named, “Simple Living and High Thinking” through practice of this knowledge.
OUR PHILOSOPHY AND WAY OF LIFE
Simple Living and High Thinking
Simple Living and High Thinking are two synergistic principles when put together develop in a perfect way for a practitioner. Having one without the other will not work perfectly and also not provide the intended benefit of practicing only the one principle.
For example, if you take simple living on its own, even monkeys live very simply but is that kind of living the perfection for human life? No, its not. We often see people opt for simple living on its own. However, without realising higher objectives they are unable to sustain the austerity of sacrificing bodily comforts and pleasures that the modern materialistic society offers.
Similarly, higher thinking on its own is not possible with modern day complicated lifestyles, lack of time and energy, and chaotic minds with an end goal to just pay bills and survive.
However, if you live simply, it is possible to have time to clearly think with a peaceful mind about higher questions such as, who am I, what is the purpose of life, why am I suffering, what is the solution to my problems etc.
According to Vedic culture, this is the real purpose of human life, the only species to be given a special intellectual faculty to be able to consider such higher subject matters, which is beyond the capability of other species.
While there are many places in New Zealand promoting simple living, or programs to elevate people’s consciousness (high thinking), Krishna Sanctuary practically showcases a unique combination of both of these. At Krishna Sanctuary, Simple Living and High Thinking is a way of life.
OUR TEAM
Abhay (Aaron) and Jayanti (Jaya)
A husband and wife team, after volunteering for about seven years in the Hunter Valley region in Australia, managing a thriving Hare Krishna community farm, while also establishing and running a very successful vegetarian/ vegan restaurant in Newcastle connected to the farm, wanted to create something similarly attractive, for people in New Zealand.
Krishna Sanctuary is their offering to people looking to get away from the stress and woes of modern life, and retreat in nature.
Krishna Culture Educational Foundation (KCEF) is also Abhay and Jayanti’s brainchild to share practical ways for adopting an alternate lifestyle summed up as Simple Living and High Thinking.
Besides this core team, we have a few volunteers from around our local Takahue community that help us as required.
Abhay, a Kiwi from Auckland, with a background in horticulture was a disillusioned materialist until he met a Hare Krishna practitioner on a Wwoofing (Willing Workers On Organic Farms) farm in 1993. After setting out on a spiritual path, Abhay took a keen interest in studying Vedic philosophy and sharing it with others. His second passion is cooking, which awakened on seeing people happily eating Hare Krishna food. He can easily whip up an amazing array of dishes for just a handful of people or even thousands, having catered for various large events. At Krishna Sanctuary, Abhay has single-handedly set up and is maintaining a large food forest and gardens. After a health crisis, he took an interest in treating health naturally, in yoga and Ayurveda. With a nature to share and teach, whatever Abhay learns, practices and finds beneficial, he likes to pass it on to others.
Jayanti, originally from India, moved to New Zealand in 2002, where she got serious about her spiritual practice after coming in contact with the Hare Krishnas. Armed with an MBA in finance and then advising businesses and NZ government for about 17 years, she decided to give up the corporate rat-race to assist Abhay in his passion for making people happy. Jayanti is the main cook at Krishna Sanctuary. While her gardening skills are negligible (having lived mostly in cities), she likes foraging in the garden looking for edibles to cook with. Jayanti is a certified yoga teacher and leads kirtan (mantra meditation) sessions. She also manages marketing, administration, finance, and communications etc. for KCEF.
WORDS OF APPRECIATION FOR US
what people say
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